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February-March 2003

By AAJ Staff
February 5, 2003
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In this column:

Summer means festivals
A heap of new albums taking out last year and starting the new

SUMMER JAZZ

The return of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, joining the Fremantle festival and jazz events as pat of the Sydney cultural festival, means the jazz calendar is back to full strength again this year.

While these festivals are mostly in January, the roster of visiting acts looked healthy well before the end of the year, not only with signings of the headline artists for the festivals but in touring activity independent of the fests. Chief among them was Sheila Jordan, Ralph Towner and Dave Douglas.

Husky-voiced Scandinavian singer Katrine Madsen, touring for Henk van Leeuwen, was one of the main attractions at the Fremantle festival in Perth. Other highlights were Perth percussionist Michael Pigneguy’s commissioned 40-minute opus based on C.Y. O’Connor, the civil engineer responsible for taking water to remote parts of Western Australia. British guitarist Gary Potter was also a festival highlight, as was New York’s Virginia Mayhew Quartet. It looks like festival manager Helen Matthews has consolidated the success of the inaugural event last year and it already is a valuable event in adding to tour possibilities for visiting artists doing the rounds in other parts of the country.

But missing from the likes of Katrine Madsen on the festival circuit is Chucho Valdes, the headline act for the Melbourne and Fremantle festivals and a leading drawcard in Sydney too. The Cuban pianist had to cancel, reportedly due to high blood pressure problems, having been advised by his doctors not to travel. He was replaced in the Fremantle festival by pianist Monty Alexander from New York.

“It’s the main act jinx,” cracked John Weber to the Age newspaper, the American pianist who was among the foreigners to make it ashore. It was his sixth visit to Australia. Singing legend Andy Bey was another highlight, here on his first visit.

Again the festival was richly studded with local artists from trad heroes – it continues to be highly popular – to celebrated contemporary acts that included the Australian Art Orchestra.
Like Madsen touring for Henk van Leeuwen’s oganisation, still to come in February is Joonatoivanen Trio from Finland, playing the capitals (except Sydney) and some regional places like Burnie, Townsville, Wollongong, Hobart and Cairns. They kick off in Perth on Feb 17.

And Norah Jones, Blue Note’s new star, is due to play in Sydney in February.
CUBAN INSPIRATION

Deep. Red Fish Blue. (Jazzhead) 9 stars: The Santeria religion of Cuba has inspired many musicians over the years, including our own Barney McAll on his album “33” from a couple of years ago. This is another set to find the energy and purpose of this Cuban music an irresistible platform. Melbourne pianist Sam Keevers is already well versed in the subject from working with his own Los Cabrones outfit in Melbourne, whose percussionist, Javier Fredes, is a feature of this new disc, which also includes prominent Sydney drummer Simon Barker and equally noted bassist Brett Hirst. Between them they bring vast and diverse musical experience, not just of jazz but folk forms such as Korean drumming. The folk aspect of this album is implicit in this set of tunes, which nevertheless also has an urbane and outright jazz feel to it, as you’d expect. The first cut, “Elegua” – appropriately the god of entrances — regularly states a portentous and slightly grave little theme that ushers in a fresh round of solos over a distance of nearly 18 minutes, the first swinging but latter ones harder and more intense. Keevers’ intensely melodic playing dominates the mid-tempo jewel that is “An Angel Fell From The Sky”, another lengthy outing at 12 minutes, which also shows off the same facility in Hirst’s extended bass solo. Simmering Latin rhythms suffuse the lovely title track, based on a gorgeous thematic statement by Keevers, as is the even lovelier “Deeper” a few tracks further on. The very sound of the piano – beautifully rich and sonorous – is not least of its appeal here. The mellifluous flow of music is interrupted by the angular and terse “Judder Bar”, a Hirst tune with clipped crossrhythms and an intriguingly constricted character which makes it one of the most inventive and interesting tacks on the disc, which as a whole is brimming with riches.

BLOWING THE HOUSE DOWN

Live at Bennetts Lane. Blow. (Newmarket) 8.5 stars: The basis of this group has been around the forefront of Australian contemporary jazz for at least 20 years, operating until recent times as Musiiki Oy. It’s hard to imagine how any entity like this could achieve such a remarkable blend of relaxed control and dishevelled elegance without years of experience and familiarity. The band seems to imply so much that it’s as if it operates inside a massive diorama, defined by itself but with lots of empty space. The feeling of capaciousness is constant, suggested mainly by the wide tonal range of the instruments at hand – from alto and flute to bass trombone and didgeridoo – and the broad textural and sonic colours in which Blow tend to “paint” their music. In short, it’s about musical character. It’s like stumbling across a quiet glade somewhere in which large bucolic beasts snuffle about in the undergrowth, calling to each other and occasionally simultaneously in pleasing happenstance. Pinging ride cymbal supplies the main rhythm platform – though at least once this is reduced to just a triangle – leaving vast space for the shambling creatures to roam. It’s free but unified and coherent, and warm. A track like “Paranoia” uses the dark and murky shades of the bass register to suggest its morose subject, while “Sex Traffic” is suitably defined in jangling, neon brightness. It’s the sort of slow or slow-ish, ruminative music that invites the occasional vocal or even beatnik poetic rant, and that is also what you get in a couple of places. In all, this album feels very complete unto itself, a cast of characters telling stories.

SOARING SOPRANO

Soaring At Dawn. Fiona Burnett (ABC Jazz) 9 stars: An interesting aspect of the more recent crop of jazz albums is the tack taken by a couple of the most celebrated of young female musicians, both from Melbourne. Like pianist Andrea Keller, saxophonist Fiona Burnett has looked to elements of classical music – in this case a string quartet – for the framework of her new recording. It is a suite of six pieces moving from solitude and darkness, to the coming of the day, the flight of birds and the denouement that is daylight itself. She has made six albums as leader or co-leader and I dare say this is the most ambitious in what is already a solidly creative career. She plays the soprano sax, and only that, which is rare. This notorious horn is not so much tamed in her hands as controlled – she does what she wants without having to discard its potent and sometimes explosive, tearaway qualities. Hence her playing runs freely in exciting and masterful language that exploits all of the wild nature of the horn as well as its civilised manners. She’s always been an exciting and highly expressive player and the new disc shows her gamut, including some quite ecstatic moments. Backed by the phenomenal talents of drummer David Jones – tidy but inventive, any other player for this recording seems unthinkable — and the glorious sound and tasteful playing of Ben Robertson, it makes for a deeply rewarding, absorbing work. Her writing for the strings is beautiful, no more so than “Darkness”, where the chords shift in blocks, circling, anchored by the limpid, sparse bass pattern. Bittersweet. www.fionaburnett.com

SOMETHING CASUAL

Splash. Frock (Newmarket) 8 stars: The Melbourne band, Frock, combine a guitar front line with vibraphone and piano accordion for one of the more unusual approaches to jazz. This, Frock’s third album for the Newmarket label, was recorded during a tour of Germany in August 2000 (the band has played the Montreux festival twice). This is a relaxed record, the vibraphone’s bubbling tones setting much of the atmosphere. Even the faster tempo tunes exhibit a quite sunny aspect, while nevertheless making substantial musical points. Casual it may be, but Frock’s music is charmingly different and backed with enduring quality.

ROBSON’S FINEST

On. Andrew Robson (ABC Jazz) 9 stars: The Sydney saxophonist’s third album under his own name adds to his reputation as one of this country'’ most distinguished young musicians. His first discs, along with recordings with Mara and others, consolidated his standing in recent years, so this one adds to a lustre that was already his. In sound quality, his voice on the instrument – usually the alto – is both impassioned and tempered at the same time. To jazz cognoscenti, think of Bernie McGann but less gruff and hoary and with something of the same emotional directness, eloquence and directness. His compositions complement this glorious tonal quality and his elegantly economic playing, using the talents of sublime pianist Alister Spence, Steve Elphick on bass and Hamish Stuart on drums to offer a journey within each track. Hear how the leader’s pointed solo in the blues ballad, “Archangel”, gently passes the baton to Spence who dissipates the tension in time for Elphick’s big voiced bass statement. A richly rewarding album by this very experienced combination and further proof of Robson’s distinctive talent and contribution to Australian jazz. (see interview , Notes From Down Under, February 2001)

NOW WHERE WAS I?

Footsteps Suite. Rob Thomsett (independent, thru Didgeridoo Records) 7 stars: Picking up where he left off a couple of decades back, guitarist Rob Thomsett has resumed his musical life with an ambitious double album that harks back to his seminal ‘70s jazz rock influences - in his own words “melodic-rock-jazz-prog-fusion”. Thomsett, a world recognised guru in project management, lives in Sydney and put his computer smarts together with his musical talent to record this slew of tunes in his home recording set-up, playing everything himself (with the exception of violin on two tracks). The double set is divided into two – a “light” disc that uses a softer palette of expression, and the “heavy” set, which gives vent to a more strident and decidedly electric style of playing. The tunes are typically based on robust rhythmic ideas and melodic figures, and despite the length of the double set Thomsett has no trouble varying the flavour of the music. Complementing his distinct compositional identity is a knowledgeable application of tone colours and textures which makes for a welcome variety on the ear. A common feature of home recordings is their bigness, brightness and presence and that’s certainly the case here – this jumps out of the speakers yet shimmers in the quieter moments. An encouraging resumption by the guitarist with the prospect of plenty more to follow. www.thomsett.com

MEMORY LANE SOUNDS GREAT

Bakelite Express. (ABC Classics) 8 stars: Bakelite Express was always too good to be just a radio show. On-air partners Christopher Lawrence and Tony Baldwin who anchor the weekly ABC radio spot are back with two more album compilations to follow the popular disc from 2001. They’ve raided the huge library which includes Baldwin’s “extensive” collection of 12,000 78rpm albums to come up with another expert selection that takes in jazz and popular music from the 1920 to the ‘50s. The titles speak plenty about the fun to be had here: “Hearts On Fire – 20 Torrid Tracks From the Golden Age of Romance” and “Vintage Vacation – 20 Songs of Travel, Escape, Exotic Locations and Arcane Rituals”. If that hints at the contents it also indicates the gentle humour which the presenters bring to their show and to these discs. As they remark, there are wonders here which several generations now can discover for the first time – Nat King Cole’s unbeatable “Route 66”, the terrific duet between Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong on “Gone Fishin’” , a fabulous south of the border spin with the Trio Los Rancheros on “La Malaguena”, the Andrews Sisters with rum and Coca cola, Yma Sumac (Goldfrapp fans can hear the original thing here), Dizzy’s “Tin Tin Deo” and the Duke’s “Caravan” just to name a few from the Vacation outing. The Romance disc offers Billie Holiday, the Inks Spots’ playful “The Doc”, Peggy Lee, Dinah Shore, Hoagy Carmichael and more, reminding us again what fun there is when sly lyrics and sophisticated, whimsical word play (“I don’t need night sky/or a blue lagoon standing by”) place romance in its most powerful and evanescent setting – the imagination. Highly recommended and not just for ageing nostalgics. www.abcshop.com.au